A Pastoral Prayer for the Strangest Easter Since the First One

With fear and great joy, O God,

That is how the Good News was first shared that day,

In Matthew’s gospel;

By the two women who fled from the tomb.

They told the other disciples,

But even now we suspect they may have first whispered it,

Afraid of those who would hope to silence such foolish talk:

Christ is Risen!

We whisper it too, now.

In the worried silence of these strange and foreboding days.

But we will need to learn to shout it,

If we hope to be heard at least six feet away:

Christ is Risen!

For all of the sadness and grief, loss and hopelessness

That surrounds us in this time of pandemic,

We will need to be reminded

Of what it means to proclaim it:

Christ is Risen!

To be sure,

Today is not the end of suffering and scarcity.

Yet it is a reminder that suffering and scarcity will not be the end.

So help us, Holy One, to be healers in a time of brokenness;

To be compassionate to our neighbors who are anxious and hurting;

To remember those who are without jobs or homes, health or food;

To reach out to loved ones who are in isolation;

To hold in our hearts those who are dying without us near.

Inspire us, with your divine creativity,

To find ways of caring for your world and all its creatures.

In our forced stillness,

Let us look at the face of this good earth,

And marvel at that which in our hurried pace we have ignored.

Help us, in our whispers and our socially-distanced shouting,

To declare that truth which gives us hope in the midst of despair,

And gladness in these moments of viral sorrow.

Help us to proclaim the cornerstone of our faith, which illustrates that nothing in life or death can separate us from God’s unfathomable love.

May we do so with great joy, even in our fears: Christ is Risen!

For these things, and the quiet offerings known only within our hearts, we lift them to you in the name of Jesus our Risen Christ, Amen.

Frank Pottorff
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, PA